Revolution's Rise of the Rest pushes for diversity in venture capital hubs
Revolution’s Rise of the Rest is a platform that focuses on spotlighting regional startup hubs with seed funding. Steve Case, Revolution Chairman & CEO and Rodney Sampson, OHUB Chairman & CEO join Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to weigh in on the importance of investing in a diverse workplace.
Video Transcript
ADAM SHAPIRO: And welcome back to "Yahoo Finance On the Move." There's a lot of talk, and a lot of it's just talk, about inclusion and diversity, especially when it comes to venture capital. I want to bring in two very important people to talk about how that can be changed as there's a push for more diversity at the venture-capital funding rounds that a lot of people talk about.
We invite into the stream Steve Case, Revolution chairman and CEO of the Opportunity Hub, Rodney Sampson. And Mr. Case, it's the Rise of the Rest seed fund that is behind what this discussion is going to be about, which is giving minority-owned, people of color, access to the dollars they need to launch their businesses. And I want to throw out a statistic, that 79% of all venture-capital investment dollars went to just three states-- California, New York, and Massachusetts-- and only 1% of VC-backed founders were Black.
So, Rodney, let me start with you. I think I know the answer, but why is it so little? Why is so few dollars flowing to these men and women?
RODNEY SAMPSON: Well, I think, you know, we're having this conversation during some very unprecedented times where our nation is addressing race and ethnicity and the lack of opportunity that Black Americans and Indigenous people of color have been experiencing for over 400 years. So going back 20 years ago, I was one of the first founders in America, Black, to actually raise venture capital. And, you know, in the last 20 years, the needle hasn't moved that much. But I think these are unprecedented times, and unprecedented action is what we're starting to see with initiatives like Rise of the Rest.
JULIE HYMAN: Steve, it's Julie here. And I know this is something that you have been looking to for years in terms of geographic diversity, right, looking outside of the traditional venture-capital hubs. This latest competition that you're doing-- I believe the competition window closes on October 25th. That's the deadline for people to get in their pitches. So walk me through how it's going to work, how much money you guys are giving out, and what you're looking for in some of these ideas.
STEVE CASE: Well, first of all, when we launched Rise of the Rest almost six years ago, it was initially focused on place-- the statistic you mentioned that more than 3/4 of all venture capital just goes to three states. But in the process we've learned that we have a similar problem around people. you know, we talked about 1% going to Black founders, less than 10% of venture capital goes to women. So we've been leaning into this issue for a few years. Actually about 45% of our Rise of the Rest portfolio right now are Black founders, Brown founders, or women founders, so we're making some progress, but it's still not what it should be.